A Devotion

Yesterday the Lord was speaking to me as I watched Good Morning America.  Our church gave us verses to read during Lent, 40 Days of Bible, and among the Scriptures are those that remind us of our sinful condition, in particular Romans 3:10, 23.  "As it is written, 'There is none righteous, no not one'...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  Well, I was watching GMA and they had George Clooney talking about his humanitarian efforts in Sudan, a country where the very government officials are bombing and killing innocent citizens.  He went there personally to take video and bring attention to the needs of the people of Sudan.  So I wondered, "Lord, how do we convince people that there is no good person in our world, when they look at someone like George Clooney and think of him as good?"  Because when we look at a person who puts his own life on the line to help folks he doesn't even know, it does appear that he is good.  But the Lord pointed out to me, that just because we can perform good acts, it doesn't make us good.

I have a tree in my backyard, a mango tree that J planted years ago.  After planting it he never took care to fertilize it or regularly water it, and the tree has suffered.  Basically, the tree is dead.  I can break branches off of it with one hand.  Yet, the tree still has leaves!  Some branches are bare, but some have very green leaves growing on it. 

I hesitate to chop it down because (get this) I feel sorry for it!  It's been in our yard such a long time, and it does have some leaves, so I want to give it a chance to survive, but the truth is the few times it has given any fruit, the mangoes have been awful.  Tiny and sour instead of big and sweet, they are inedible.  Yes, it has some leaves on it, and at times can even look pretty, but it cannot produce good fruits.

In the same way, we are capable of doing good acts.  As a matter of fact, as Christians we are called to do just that, live a life of love and compassion and do good to others.  But that doesn't make us good.  Anyone is capable of doing good, even the worst criminal.  The person that appears to be an all-around good person, isn't always good.  Our root, our base, is as rotten as the root of my mango tree, so that although we can "look" good we really aren't.  And that's why we need Jesus.  Because He IS good, and He can save us from our sinfulness.